For the naive - please read

U.S. pays Iraqi papers to run stories
Employees of firm with Pentagon contract pose as freelancers to place soldiers' articles
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/30/MNGKAG0AS21.DTL&feed=rss.news
"The arrangement with Lincoln Group is evidence of how far the Pentagon has moved to blur the traditional boundaries between military public affairs -- the dissemination of truthful information to the media -- and psychological and information operations, which use propaganda and sometimes misleading information to advance the objectives of a military campaign. "

Oh, and you should understand that these "stories" are then picked up by the US media, and reported on here at home.
As stated in the above article: ""There is no longer any way to separate foreign media from domestic media. Those neat lines don't exist anymore," said one private contractor who does information operations work for the Pentagon."

- Vox